RE: btp is a teacher now
11-15-2012, 11:22 PM
hmmm....
I think...i think, that I can sufficiently prove a good number of my students cheated on their six weeks test, which would mean I would give half of my last class zeros for a major grade. (which I would then let them retake later)
Here is the deal:
We had a difficult test, and one of the questions for this test was a fill-in-the-number type problem. I noticed that my class averages in my last two classes were significantly higher than my other 4. I looked at this fillinthenumber problem and saw that, unlike any other student in any period, 8, of my kids in my last class answered: 49.
Now this is odd. The answer is wrong. I will ask them tomorrow how they came up with this answer, because I don't see how they could have derived this given the information presented to them. If they cannot give me an answer for this or if ("well I guessed") is the predominate response, then I will have to call them out.
Of course I need to go back and check their tests, see if there is any work present on their exams that would indicate this answer. I can also check other teachers to see if they had any students make this response in other periods. (The entire physics department across the whole district took this same test.)
Barring any honest explanation, I do have one theory: Many students in my earlier periods got the answer 99 (incorrect, but an easy mistake to make if you don't know how to solve the problem). If say, one of them managed to sneak a picture of their test, and their handwriting was sloppy, it's not inconceivable that the recipient of that test would have read "49", and then told their cohorts before class: "I hear this test is hard, oh but the answer for #3 is 49"
Well, if there isn't an honest explanation, it all comes down to if the administration will let me write up almost half of my class.
Edit: oh hey same story with another class but "41" instead...hmmm...
I think...i think, that I can sufficiently prove a good number of my students cheated on their six weeks test, which would mean I would give half of my last class zeros for a major grade. (which I would then let them retake later)
Here is the deal:
We had a difficult test, and one of the questions for this test was a fill-in-the-number type problem. I noticed that my class averages in my last two classes were significantly higher than my other 4. I looked at this fillinthenumber problem and saw that, unlike any other student in any period, 8, of my kids in my last class answered: 49.
Now this is odd. The answer is wrong. I will ask them tomorrow how they came up with this answer, because I don't see how they could have derived this given the information presented to them. If they cannot give me an answer for this or if ("well I guessed") is the predominate response, then I will have to call them out.
Of course I need to go back and check their tests, see if there is any work present on their exams that would indicate this answer. I can also check other teachers to see if they had any students make this response in other periods. (The entire physics department across the whole district took this same test.)
Barring any honest explanation, I do have one theory: Many students in my earlier periods got the answer 99 (incorrect, but an easy mistake to make if you don't know how to solve the problem). If say, one of them managed to sneak a picture of their test, and their handwriting was sloppy, it's not inconceivable that the recipient of that test would have read "49", and then told their cohorts before class: "I hear this test is hard, oh but the answer for #3 is 49"
Well, if there isn't an honest explanation, it all comes down to if the administration will let me write up almost half of my class.
Edit: oh hey same story with another class but "41" instead...hmmm...